I'd like to point out one more aspect of the Gault-Millau debate, namely that the way scores come about plays an important part in the sorts of arguments that can be made against a wine guide.

Gault Millau tastes openly, that is to say every taster knows which wine he is about to score. That has a positive side, as a wine can of course be appreciated more fairly when you have some context to go with it, some experience of the kind of quality that a certain producer has shown in the long range, and other things. The negative side is this: Faced with one producer's range of wines, any taster will tend to give scores that reflect the hierarchy of quality that the pricing suggests, rather than a strictly objective evaluation of every individual wine.

The German wine community is in uproar (well, a little). Hundreds of Twitter messages or blog comments are addressing the conflict between the Gault Millau WineGuide and a group of vintners. As is often the case with the blogosphere, most repeat what they have read in other blogs and the discussion can become a little self-referential. However, there are two reasons why I am revisiting this topic today: some of the more knowledgeable bloggers do indeed have a few interesting comments; also, most of the discussion is in German, so it will be hard to follow for our international readers.

The first posting I would like to summarise is Werner Elflein's (yes, this is German for 'little elf') article Quo vadis Wineguides? - published three weeks ago. Elflein starts with a few comments on the structural crisis of the media and the problems wine guides have to make a profit. He argues that winemakers do profit much more from the work of professional tasters than many of them realise and that it is often the producers of third or fourth rank who complain about unfair treatment (Wine Rambler addendum: this does obviously not apply to the winemakers who signed the Gault Millau letter).

Thought it'd be nice to have some music here from time to time, to go with all that wine.

And it's my great honour to have a real legend of american music open this segment: This charming little video captures the great folk musician Doc Watson in a guitar maker's workshop, obviously trying out a new instrument.

"Telling my troubles to my old guitar" is just a harmlessly swinging Chet Atkins tune. But in Doc's off-the-cuff-version, this becomes a little marvel of thumping guitar strings and stoic perfection.

And I dare say my co-rambler Torsten will enjoy the little hint of a yodel at the end.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqjFT65KAA0 autoplay:0]

You may be aware of Gault Millau as a restaurant guide, but they also publish Wine Guide Deutschland, the "definitive guide to German wine". Today, a group of leading German winemakers has announced that it will not only stop sending their wines to Gault Millau, they also refuse to even have their wineries listed in the wine guide.

The list of winemakers who have signed the open letter reads like a who is who of German wine: Helmut Dönnhoff, grand master of Riesling, Knipser, who had just won the title "vintner of the year", Pinot Noir experts Dr. Heger and Meyer-Näkel, Josef Leitz (famously called "our friend Josi" by wine merchants Pinard de Picard) and Heymann-Löwenstein, who has redefined the Wine Rambler's understanding of what mineral means in a Riesling, to name just a few.

Journalists are sometimes a bit slow. I am just reading an article in the German newspaper Die Welt and they have come to the surprising conclusion that Brits are less likely to buy European wine these days as Sterling is so weak compared to the Euro. I am not quite sure why this article comes out now, after all Sterling was pretty much on par with the Euro around Christmas and has since picked up 17%, but it is true that buying wine from the continent is not as exciting as it was two years ago.

The UK has very high duties and taxes on wine, but if you order only for your personal consumption you do not have to pay these. This means that in 2007 I could import German Riesling for about 50% less than what it would have cost me to buy the same wine in the UK. It is still cheaper now, but not as good value as it was before. However, that is not really news.

One interesting fact though: the UK taxes wine 65 times as much as France. Cheers!

After the failed attempt to explore wine merchants in Washington, a Wine Rambler desperate to bring some wine stories home from the USA trip moved north to the Big Apple.

I know what I'm needin', and I don't wanna waste more time.
I'm in a New York state of mind.

This posting does in no way claim to be representative of the wine shopping experience in New York. It is just a fairly random sample of wine shops I happened to walk into while exploring New York. And a few comments by a German wine snob about what German wine delight is on offer to the locals.

Well, you went uptown ridin' in your limousine / With your fine Park Avenue clothes / You had the Dom Perignon in your hand / And the spoon up your nose

Product Range: Fairly comprehensive on the South of France, Italy and Spain, good on Germany, a small selection of the rest. Interesting older wines (Bordeaux, Languedoc) at very fair prices come up from time to time.

Pricing: Fairly unbeatable.

Wine prose: None to speak of. Wine descriptions mostly just cite journalist rankings and points. But that's ok, no Parker hypocrisy either.

Upsides: Very competitive prices. The range of wines under 6 € is exceptional, and - as far as I can say - very decent throughout. Since prices are mostly cheaper even than in supermarkets, shipping included, you can stock up on everyday wines without regrets.